 By Jim Selman | Bio
I got another shot of what has been a
curiosity to me for a long time: the growing practice of ‘texting’.
This practice was highlighted for me when I read that Barack Obama has
to kick his Blackberry habit in his new job and again when I was at the
theater earlier this week with an audience of mostly 20 and
30-year-olds. Both before the curtain and at the intermission, I
counted about 30 folks fixated on their ‘mobile communication devices’.
Several were even covertly ‘peeking’ during the performance. I don’t think I am a Luddite, yet somehow this seemed[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
balance
choice
communication
relationship
texting
 By Shae Hadden | Bio
Several years ago, a wise 93-year-old man
named Hayden shared with me his principles for living life “at the
growing edge”. He had printed them on cards, in the shape of a
bookmark, and distributed them to everyone who engaged in meaningful
conversation with him. Today, as I’m recovering from the first major
surgery I’ve ever had, I was drawn to reflect on a couple of them
again. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I shared them with you now:[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
choice
compassion
growing
health
letting_go
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
Think about the positive attributes of
growing older, and ‘wisdom’ will always appear near the top of the
list. Until recently, I had assumed ‘wisdom’ was a kind of ‘right
knowledge’. Every time someone says the Serenity Prayer, I am reminded
of this attribute again.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference.”
I wonder if I do know the difference.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
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wisdom
By Jim Selman | Bio
I
have been talking about ‘completion’ a lot lately. It is basically that
state of being where we can let the past be in the past and not try to
control everything to make the future turn out the way we want it.
Completion is a necessary state if we want live in the present. One of
the things that keeps us from being complete is guilt. Guilt is a waste
of time. It is blaming ourselves for whatever we think we’ve done
wrong. As far as I can tell, it is also a cover-up for not being
responsible for whatever we did that we’re feeling guilty about.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
blame
choice
completion
guilt
judgment
responsibility
By Jim Selman | Bio
One of the biggest
questions most of us have is “Why do we do what we do?”, particularly
when what we do isn’t what we want to do or think we should be doing.
My answer is that, for most of us, most of the time we’re not actually
choosing what we do. We are living our life according to our historical
patterns within some narrowly proscribed personal and cultural ‘story’
about what is and is not possible and what our options are in any given
situation. In effect, we live our lives in a ‘circumstantial drift’
where the future is determined by our past.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
Tagged with:
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circumstantial_drift
future
past
retirement
time
 By Jim Selman | Bio
I was listening to a lecture today on the
philosopher Martin Heidegger. He is pretty difficult to understand at
the best of times, even though I have been a student of his thinking
for many years. The lecture today spoke of the distinction he made
between ‘tradition’, which he felt was a bad thing, and ‘heritage’,
which he thought was a good thing. In fact, he felt heritage was
essential to understanding the true nature of ‘Being’.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
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choice
heidigger
heritage
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wisdom_in_action
By David Korten | Great Turning website
Read more posts in The World We Want series.
How does it happen? It starts with a conversation. A while back, Cecile Andrews, our local Seattle author of The Circle of Simplicity,
explained to me how the women’s movement changed the story on gender
and unleashed the long suppressed power of the feminine. It started
with discussion circles in which women came together to share personal
stories. As each woman spoke her truth, a larger truth was revealed for
all to see. The prevailing story that the key to a woman’s happiness is
to find the right man, marry him, and devote her life to his service
was not true.[ Read More]
Written by admin at The Great Turning
Tagged with:
choice
conversation
responsibility
voluntary_simplicity
womens_movement
My neighbor and good friend is moving to an apartment without stairs in
another city where there’s a better environment for retirees and a more
laid-back lifestyle. She tells me that she is ‘slowing down’. I am sure
she is making the right decision for her—stairs have become difficult
following hip surgery last year. And I am sure she knows that our
choice of wording reveals
some of the bias hidden in our cultural predisposition to the
future. To be sure, we hear a lot of people declaring that they’re slowing down. Yet, I wonder what ‘slowing down’ really means? [ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
choice
future
lifestyle
reality
retirement
slowing_down
By David Korten | Great Turning website
Read more posts in The World We Want series.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it turned out the
choices we must make together to survive together are the same choices
we must make to create the very world most of all the world’s people
want? If that were case, then we should be able to just get together
and make it happen. Wouldn’t that be cool? Maybe we should start a
conversation to find out what people truly want…[ Read More]
Written by admin at The Great Turning
Tagged with:
choice
compassion
conversation
cooperation
earth_charter
According to Professor Yarrow, a history professor at American
University, it is unpatriotic to retire while you are still in good
health.
"Retiring when you're still in good health isn't just
wrong, it's profoundly selfish and unpatriotic...Dropping out of the
workforce while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions
to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's
future, and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy...
If millions of Americans worked until age 67 instead of 62...[they]
would increase national output and personal wealth and keep the labor
force at a healthy level." [ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
Tagged with:
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